Nobody plans to break the law on holiday. But renting a motorbike in Hoi An takes about ninety seconds, nobody explains anything, and by the time you are on the road you have usually made at least two of the mistakes below without noticing.

This is not a scare piece. It is the checklist we give our own customers before we hand over a key, with the real penalty figures from Decree 168/2024, which has been in force since 1 January 2025 and raised most traffic fines sharply. Read the first section and you will already know more than most riders on the road here.

Renting a motorbike in 2026: what each mistake costs

Most guides written before 2025 quote fines that no longer exist. Decree 168/2024 replaced the old schedule on 1 January 2025 and roughly doubled or tripled many amounts. These are the ones that matter to a tourist on a scooter.

Two things jump out of that table. First, the gap between forgetting your licence and not having one is roughly tenfold. Second, and this is the part almost nobody knows, the last row is bigger than all the others.

The shop that rents you a bike without looking at your licence is risking four times the fine you are. That tells you something about how it runs everything else.

Mistake 1: assuming your IDP is valid here

This is the single most common mistake made when renting a motorbike in Vietnam, and it catches careful people — the ones who did the paperwork before flying.

Vietnam acceded to the 1968 Vienna Convention on road traffic. It does not recognise International Driving Permits issued under the older 1949 Geneva Convention. And 1949 is exactly what several of the biggest tourist source countries still issue: the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Ireland among them. An AAA permit bought in the US is, for Vietnamese purposes, the wrong document.

There is a second half to this that trips up even riders with a valid 1968 permit: an IDP only carries over what your home licence already allows. A car-only licence plus an IDP is still a car-only licence. To ride a scooter over 50cc legally you need a motorcycle entitlement at home, and the IDP that translates it.

Mistake 2: renting from a shop that never asks for a licence

Travellers renting a motorbike usually read this as convenience. It is worth reading it the other way round.

Under article 32(10) of the same decree, handing a motorbike to someone who is not qualified to ride it costs the owner 8 to 10 million VND as an individual, 16 to 20 million as a registered business. A shop that shrugs at your licence is either unaware of that or willing to gamble with it. Either way, it is the same shop that will be vague about the deposit, vague about what happens if the bike breaks down in Da Nang, and unreachable on a Sunday.

What a shop worth using does instead: asks what you are licensed for, offers you a legal option if you are not, writes the deposit and the fuel policy down, and gives you a phone number that a human answers. Ours is on the fleet page, and the FAQ page covers the awkward questions in writing.

Mistake 3: leaving your passport as a deposit

Plenty of shops still ask for it when you are renting a motorbike, and plenty of travellers hand it over because it feels like the local custom. It is a bad trade for three separate reasons.

• You need it. Hotels need it at check-in, banks need it to change money, and you legally need to be able to produce identification.
• It turns a small dispute into a big one. If the shop claims a scratch was yours, you are negotiating with the one document you cannot leave the country without.
• There is no upside. A cash deposit, or a photocopy plus a photo of the passport page, protects the shop just as well.

Mistake 4: skipping the two-minute handover check

The bike is running, the staff member is friendly, you want to get going. This is the two minutes that decides whether you have an argument at the end.

• Film a slow lap of the bike with your phone, including both sides, the mirrors and the plastic under the seat. Thirty seconds, timestamped, ends most disputes before they start.
• Squeeze both tyres and look at the tread. Soft or bald tyres are the most common reason a rental day goes wrong.
• Test both brakes and the horn in the lane outside. The horn matters more here than at home.
• Check the fuel level and agree the policy — return it as you got it, or full to full. Write down which.
• Open the seat and confirm the registration card (cavet) is there. Riding without it is a separate offence.
• Try the helmet on and fasten it. An unfastened strap is the same 400–600K fine as no helmet at all, and helmets that do not fit are the ones people take off.

Mistake 5: picking the cheapest bike instead of the right one

When renting a motorbike, the difference between the cheapest bike in town and a good one is often less than the price of two coffees a day. The difference on a wet road is considerably larger.

If you are unsure, our step-by-step guide to renting a scooter walks through the same decision with photos, and current prices are listed here.

Mistake 6: assuming travel insurance covers you

Almost every travel policy sold in English has a clause about motorcycles, and almost nobody reads it before the trip. The usual wording excludes claims if you were riding without a licence valid in the country you were in — which loops straight back to №02.

So the IDP question is not only about a 2 to 4 million VND fine when renting a motorbike. It is about whether a hospital bill after a low-speed spill is covered or not, and those bills are in a different order of magnitude.

• Read the motorcycle clause before you fly, not after. Look for engine size limits as well — many policies cap cover at 125cc.
• The bike’s own compulsory insurance is third-party only. It covers damage you do to other people, not you and not the bike. We explain what it does and does not do on the motorbike insurance page.
• Ask the shop what happens to the bike if it is damaged or stolen, and get the answer in writing before you pay.

Mistake 7: fuel and charging mistakes

• Petrol bikes here take the green pump. Since 1 June 2026 the old mineral RON 95 has been withdrawn and replaced by E10 RON 95, which is fine for modern scooters. Our guide to petrol in Vietnam explains the pump labels.
• Fill up before you leave town for a long ride. Stations thin out fast on the smaller roads.
• Bottles of fuel sold on the roadside are a last resort, not a plan. Quality varies and the price does too.
• On an electric bike, treat the stated range as optimistic — two people, hills and headwind all cut it. Ride out on the first half of the battery, not the last.
• Never run the tank to empty to “use it up” before returning. Almost every fuel policy is return-as-received, and pushing a scooter in the heat is nobody’s idea of a holiday.

Mistake 8: parking and the old town no-drive hours

The protected core of Hoi An closes to motor vehicles at set times through the day and completely during festival evenings, which catches out almost everyone on their first afternoon here. Riding in anyway is how a pleasant afternoon turns into a fine and a shoving match with a barrier.

• Park outside the core and walk in. Attended lots around Hoang Dieu and Tran Quy Cap charge about 5,000 VND a visit and give you a paper ticket.
• A lot without a ticket and without a price board is the one that will quote you a different number when you come back.
• Do not leave anything in the under-seat compartment. It is not a safe.
• Take a photo of where you parked. Two hundred identical scooters look very alike at 10pm.
• Lock the steering and take the key. Most rental agreements make theft your problem.

What to do if the police stop you

Traffic checks here are normal and not personal, and a shop that keeps its paperwork straight makes them short. What they ask for is consistent: licence and IDP, the bike’s registration card, and that your helmet is on properly.

• Stop, switch off, take your helmet off and be polite. It costs nothing and changes the tone of the whole conversation.
• Hand over documents, not your passport. A photocopy is normally enough for identification.
• Ask for the written ticket if you are fined. A proper fine comes with paperwork and is paid at a bank or online, not in cash by the roadside.
• Call the rental shop. If the bike is ours, ring +84 935 206 306 and we will speak to the officer in Vietnamese for you.
• Do not argue about the law at the roadside. If you think a fine is wrong, that is what the written ticket and the office are for.

Renting a motorbike with no licence: the legal way

This is the part that saves most travellers renting a motorbike here, and it is a genuine rule rather than a loophole. Under the 2024 Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety, a vehicle under 50cc — or electric with a motor under 4 kW — is classified as a moped and needs no driving licence. The rider must be at least 16.

Helmets, traffic rules and the alcohol limit apply to every line in that table. “No licence needed” is not “no rules”.

Frequently asked questions

Fine amounts in this article are taken from Decree 168/2024/ND-CP, in force since 1 January 2025, and were checked on 16 September 2026 against Thu Vien Phap Luat; the IDP rules were checked against published guidance on the 1968 Convention. Fines are ranges, and the exact amount is set by the officer within that range. This is general information for travellers, not legal advice — rules and figures change, so confirm anything critical before you ride. Since 1 July 2025 Hoi An has been part of Da Nang City, so addresses on official paperwork may differ from older articles.